The Devil's Cage

The approaching figure looked at Kieran who was standing still. His deep blue eyes showed that he was displeased.

Fuuuu!

A cold breeze suddenly blew towards Kieran.

Kieran felt the threats clearly before the breeze even touched him. He instinctively dodged it.

Crack! Tsk Tsk!

After Kieran moved from his spot, a layer of frost formed on top of the ground that was caressed by the cold breeze. The rate at which it spread out was increasing exponentially.

This layer of frost was not the same as the trail left behind by that figure. It was almost 10 cm thick and was emanating chilly air that could freeze one’s spine.

Aside from that, the breeze grew into a swift wind that didn’t stop. In fact, it only became stronger and colder.

Fuuuuuu!

The freezing wind roared loudly as if it turned into a giant, formless ice viper that curled its wiggling body, raised its head up high, and gave out a chilling hiss that shook the air.

Kieran was at least 5 meters away but he could clearly see his breath from his nose and mouth that turned white. When his breath left his mouth, it swiftly froze into ice crystals.

He clearly knew what would happen to him if he got struck by the frozen wind, so his best options were to prevent it from closing in.

"AIO!" He extended one of his hands with his palm open and pointed at the frozen wind. A cone-shaped fire blazed out.

KABOOM!

The master level of [Burning Hand] was buffed by [Fusion Heart]’s [Fiery Sulphur]. Its fire damage instantly boosted up to Powerful rank.

The 3.5 meter and 60-degree angle area before him was engulfed in flames, including that approaching frozen wind!

The frozen wind was rampaging violently as the formless ice viper hissed loudly with its head raised up.

The blazing flames brought up the heat, scorching everything in its path to ash like what waves of fire do.

The ice and fire clashed, turning everything else around it white and pale.

The extreme contrast and well-matched power collided directly and caused an intense reaction.

KABOOOM!

The moment of impact caused a giant explosion, blasting out waves of steam in all directions, sweeping everything away.

Frozen air splashed in all directions. The blazing flames burned whatever it came across.

Instantly, the ground of the street that had suffered a heavy impact started to crack as if the explosion was the last straw that would collapse the camel. The cracks were big and it spread around fast. The wide cracks were deep enough to swallow an entire human calf.

As the crack on the ground spread out like a spider web, the base of the houses around were affected and started to crumble.

One by one, block by block, each of the houses collapsed like domino pieces. In the end, all the houses in Charlie Street crumbled into ruins.

KACROOOM!

The crumbling whipped up enough dust clouds from the ground to even cover the sky.

All the other Mutants were shocked by the scene before their eyes. Even the cypress tree ent started to back off subconsciously, wishing to further itself from the blast point. However, the big trunk that formed its body was as clumsy as ever.

The cypress ent became the one most affected by the explosion.

The tenacious bark on its body was able to withstand knives, axes and even flintlock bullets that blasted and left holes and bumps. Its body was covered with frozen frost and burn marks all over.

Especially the robust and strong branches that made up its hand, countless smaller branches were snapped in the process.

It was not a true ent by any means after all, even if it shared an extremely similar look. Its abilities and strength were worlds apart compared to the legendary being.

Roooar!

The pain made the cypress ent roar towards the sky. Its huge body was wriggling non-stop, whipping up a violent breeze, blowing away the dust of its surrounding. The violent breeze expelled the dust and revealed two figures standing on opposite sides of each other. They seemed like they were never caught in the explosion.

Both of them locked gazes. The contrasting energy and aura were elevating by the seconds.

One of them wanted to freeze the earth and the other wanted to scorch the sky.

The temperature around plummeted and skyrocketed, one after another.

The rapid change of temperature formed a cyclone in the middle between Kieran and the icy figure. It swiftly grew into a size that one couldn’t neglect anymore.

Whuuu Fuuuu Wuuuuu!

The cyclone created a strong gale, dragging all the trash and leaves around as it continued growing inside. Even the bricks and debris were moving.

Anyone with a slightly better insight could tell that it was the formation of a catastrophe or a natural disaster.

The Mutants started to run backward. Even the cypress ent wished it could run away with all four of its limbs so that it could leave the area faster.

However, amongst all the runaways, another figure moved in the opposite direction.

The figure was carefully closing in on the two that were confronting each other, waiting for the best timing to strike.

Truth be told, the figure never thought that Kieran’s abilities and strengths were that powerful but he knew it would be in his best interest for her to not know.

"Fight! Fight! Fight with all you can. The best will be when both sides are heavily wounded and when that time comes..."

The figure’s ambitious thoughts bloomed like a flower. He brought a ring in his hand and gazed at the ever-enlarging cyclone.

Then, the big cyclone burst out with a loud bang, following another clashing of ice and fire that caused another explosion.

However, the second explosion was silent.

An area of darkness appeared on the field, enshrouding the bursting cyclone with chilly ice and blazing flames inside, including Kieran and the Mutant he was fighting.

"Hahahaha! Benz! 2567! You would never have thought right?"

A wildly arrogant laugh sounded from aside. A Night monster walked out from the darkness and even with the burnt and rotten face on its head, its delight was hard to conceal.

It has its own reasons to be delighted!

Surprisingly, it caught the leader of the Mutants, Benz, within its grasp. It was one of the greatest achievement yet. It was probably thinking about what rewards it would receive from its leader.

So when it saw an ice blade form out of thin air, the Night monster never looked more inconceivable. This feeling amplified when the dark, red great sword’s edge slashed its body a step ahead of the ice blade.

The Night monster would never understand until the moment of its death: why were the both of them not unaffected after being shrouded by "Darkness Grave"?

It was impossible!

After Kieran glanced over the orange equipment on top of the melting body, his attention switched back to his opponent at hand.

Compared to the clown that he just killed, the Mutant before him was the real concern.

Truth be told, Kieran knew exactly why the Night monster appeared.

After he verified the strength of the Mutants, he had a question in his heart.

Why would the Mutants spend so much effort in setting this up given that they had the absolute advantages? Why not go to Herbert the first moment when they discovered him?

With the capabilities that Kieran showed, his opponent had the potential to easily suppress him with raw power even though his methods were strange!

As far as his abilities were concerned, the moment the icy figure appeared, his gaze never moved, meaning he was not scared of the skills Kieran used.

Since his opponent was not concerned about his power yet, they set up seemingly useless traps, what was it for then?

The answer was quite obvious, the setup was for the Nights!

The Night leader, Edgar!

A powerful foe was beside him. Even Kieran who was in a battle with Benz, the Mutant leader, reserved some of his attention for the other opponent.

Therefore, before the clown appeared, Kieran noticed Edgar’s presence.

After setting up extensively, Benz the Mutant leader would have noticed Edgar’s presence as well, causing the Night monster that walked out to behave like a clown.

"Not bad!" Benz said.

The words sounded like they were praising Kieran but the temperature around Benz started to plummet once more as if the coldness was trying to freeze the air around him.

Kieran’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that his opponent wanted to end the battle since he failed to wait for his target to appear and got impatient.

In other words, Benz was getting serious, going as far as utilizing his ace card.

Whuuuuuu!

Keiran took in a long, deep breath. He was readying himself for his ace card as well without further hesitation.

The indifferent sulphuric scent started to appear, turning denser every moment.

The rampant and chaotic aura was cascading down with the force of a mountain.